Modeling jet fuel (JP-8) fate and transport in soils with plants

Vegetation is often used to clean up soils and groundwater contaminated with organic contaminants. Plant-induced upward water movement may draw organic contaminants spilled near the watertable to the more aerated near-surface soil. The objective of this study was to develop and verify a 1-D model of fate and transport of JP-8, a kerosene-based jet fuel, in soil. The modeling approach considered the advective and dispersive transport of jet fuels dissolved in groundwater, which may undergo simple first-order decay or linear adsorption. The governing partial differential advection dispersion equation was solved in one dimension. Data from an experiment of fate and transport of JP-8 with plant-induced upward water movement were used to verify the model. Simulated results with different scenarios described the experimental results well for different depths above the contaminated zone in both vegetated and unvegetated columns. Advection was the dominant mechanism near the contaminated zone and advection with retardation and decay was used to fit the data away from the contaminated zone. Results indicated that the soil water movement impacted the transport and concentration of JP-8 in the soil columns. This model can be used to simulate the fate of JP-8 associated with phytoremediation and evapotranspiration.